1. Title, director and release year?
The 11th Hour
Nadia Conners and Leila Conners Petersen
2007
2. What is the central argument or narrative of the film?
This film basically touches on the whole matrix of the problems with sustainability/environmental issues. It explicitly shows how we are destroying the planet and its resources with all of the harmful acts that we participate in on a daily basis. This movie really shows the human impact on the world and the consequences of what we are doing.
3. What sustainability problems does the film draw out?
This film addresses almost every substantial sustainable issue that is important. It goes into fossil fuels, global climate change, greenhouse gas emissions, consumerism, and the nature of corporations and politics. This goes into all of the different environmental issues on how we are destroying the earth and the consequences of this on the resources, and it goes into the human issues like the economy, population increase and consumerism and what this is doing to society as well as the environment. This film really lays out the matrix of problems for the viewer and uses interesting and intelligent ways to show this. Plus, at the end of the movie, it really went into detail about solutions and what we can do to change all of the different aspects of the harmful practices that we are taking part in.
4. What parts of the film did you find most persuasive and compelling? Why?
- The opening images that were shown were very striking and caught my attention o There were so many different images that showed many of the issues, not just water quality or pollution from plants, but it was images from all over the world showing all kinds of sustainability issues o When they showed the image of the seal being clubbed, I nearly cried. I know there’s a commercial that shows the video right up until the person actually hit the seal, but actually seeing someone walk up to a helpless seal and just hit it was really disgusting, but convincing
- I really liked how they had so many different people talking about so many different topics. This really showed the depth of the problem and also how widespread it is; with so many experts talking about all different topics it is undeniable that these problems are reaching everyone in the world and affecting each person in some way
- When John Kennedy was inauguration there were half as many people in the world than there are now o That fact is staggering. Our population is in such a period of increase and we just don’t have the resources to sustain the amount of people.
- I really appreciated how some of the scientists and people that were talking gave a different view to the problems. It made think of some of the issues and solutions in a different way, which was very interesting o One person said that it’s not the environment that needs saving, it’s people. This is because no matter what the environment will be here, even when we destroy it, we are going to be the ones that ultimately suffer the consequences. o Another idea is that we are going to have to redesign everything. We have to think differently about our cities and how we plan them and how we design everything like cars and buildings. It’s interesting to think about all the changes that we need to invest in for our future
5. What parts of the film were you not compelled or convinced by?
There wasn’t a part in the movie that I wasn’t convinced by, but some parts of the movie it was hard to be compelled by since there were so many intelligent people talking about very scientific topics. There were some parts that I just didn’t understand what exactly they were saying or trying to get across to the viewer, so it was hard to be compelled by something when I didn’t understand what the speaker was actually saying.
6. What additional information does this film compel you to seek out? Where do you want to dig deeper and what connections do you want to make with other issues, factors, problems, etc.?
This really made me want to look into all of the solutions that the film discussed. There were so many topics that the movie touched on, especially in many different countries and I would really like to look into these projects. I would want to learn more about these projects and how they are being proposed and developed, but also I see some of these plans as potential jobs since I am graduating in a year.
7. What audiences does the film best address? What kind of imagination is fostered in viewers? Do you think the film is likely to change the way viewers think about and act on environmental problems?
This film is best for people that are studying the topics of sustainability and already understand the basic concepts of sustainability, environmental, and social issues. There were many intelligent scientists that were discussing topics without much of an introduction to the topics, and it was assumed that the viewer knew what was going on. This movie would not be for the general public, since the movie already assumed that the viewer understood the environmental problems, and unfortunately, some people don’t believe that we are causing damage to the environment. This movie already assumes that the viewer knows about the problems of the environment and also that they want to change it. There were so many solutions that were discussed in the movie, I know personally, I was inspired to look into some of these projects and hopefully other people that watched this movie were also compelled to want to help with these solutions as well.
8. What kinds of action or points of intervention are suggested by the film?
This movie suggests many different types of changes for all kinds of people. It talks about at a low level, every change that a person makes in a huge population will make a difference, and that each person’s actions can help. Also, in politics policy needs to change and we need to make our machines more efficient and run on different types of energy. One idea that was used throughout the movie was that we need to rethink everything, and use our imagination to think outside of conventional ideas of what our everyday life is like. People need to be creative and we need to basically redesign everything, from the car to city planning to how we recycle and what we use. This is an exciting point of intervention for me, as an engineering student about to go into the work force, this means that everything needs to be redesigned and built in sustainable ways, and I would really like to take part in that.
9. What could have been added to this film to enhance its environmental educational value?
I really can’t think of anything that could have been added to add more to the educational value of the movie. This movie really described each problem in a very educated and informative way with very intelligent scholars to back up the information. It skipped over the introductory information of the topics and really when right in depth for the problems and showed them on a more scientific scale rather than just statistics and giving useless figures that can’t really be understood.
The 11th Hour
Nadia Conners and Leila Conners Petersen
2007
2. What is the central argument or narrative of the film?
This film basically touches on the whole matrix of the problems with sustainability/environmental issues. It explicitly shows how we are destroying the planet and its resources with all of the harmful acts that we participate in on a daily basis. This movie really shows the human impact on the world and the consequences of what we are doing.
3. What sustainability problems does the film draw out?
This film addresses almost every substantial sustainable issue that is important. It goes into fossil fuels, global climate change, greenhouse gas emissions, consumerism, and the nature of corporations and politics. This goes into all of the different environmental issues on how we are destroying the earth and the consequences of this on the resources, and it goes into the human issues like the economy, population increase and consumerism and what this is doing to society as well as the environment. This film really lays out the matrix of problems for the viewer and uses interesting and intelligent ways to show this. Plus, at the end of the movie, it really went into detail about solutions and what we can do to change all of the different aspects of the harmful practices that we are taking part in.
4. What parts of the film did you find most persuasive and compelling? Why?
- The opening images that were shown were very striking and caught my attention
o There were so many different images that showed many of the issues, not just water quality or pollution from plants, but it was images from all over the world showing all kinds of sustainability issues
o When they showed the image of the seal being clubbed, I nearly cried. I know there’s a commercial that shows the video right up until the person actually hit the seal, but actually seeing someone walk up to a helpless seal and just hit it was really disgusting, but convincing
- I really liked how they had so many different people talking about so many different topics. This really showed the depth of the problem and also how widespread it is; with so many experts talking about all different topics it is undeniable that these problems are reaching everyone in the world and affecting each person in some way
- When John Kennedy was inauguration there were half as many people in the world than there are now
o That fact is staggering. Our population is in such a period of increase and we just don’t have the resources to sustain the amount of people.
- I really appreciated how some of the scientists and people that were talking gave a different view to the problems. It made think of some of the issues and solutions in a different way, which was very interesting
o One person said that it’s not the environment that needs saving, it’s people. This is because no matter what the environment will be here, even when we destroy it, we are going to be the ones that ultimately suffer the consequences.
o Another idea is that we are going to have to redesign everything. We have to think differently about our cities and how we plan them and how we design everything like cars and buildings. It’s interesting to think about all the changes that we need to invest in for our future
5. What parts of the film were you not compelled or convinced by?
There wasn’t a part in the movie that I wasn’t convinced by, but some parts of the movie it was hard to be compelled by since there were so many intelligent people talking about very scientific topics. There were some parts that I just didn’t understand what exactly they were saying or trying to get across to the viewer, so it was hard to be compelled by something when I didn’t understand what the speaker was actually saying.
6. What additional information does this film compel you to seek out? Where do you want to dig deeper and what connections do you want to make with other issues, factors, problems, etc.?
This really made me want to look into all of the solutions that the film discussed. There were so many topics that the movie touched on, especially in many different countries and I would really like to look into these projects. I would want to learn more about these projects and how they are being proposed and developed, but also I see some of these plans as potential jobs since I am graduating in a year.
7. What audiences does the film best address? What kind of imagination is fostered in viewers? Do you think the film is likely to change the way viewers think about and act on environmental problems?
This film is best for people that are studying the topics of sustainability and already understand the basic concepts of sustainability, environmental, and social issues. There were many intelligent scientists that were discussing topics without much of an introduction to the topics, and it was assumed that the viewer knew what was going on. This movie would not be for the general public, since the movie already assumed that the viewer understood the environmental problems, and unfortunately, some people don’t believe that we are causing damage to the environment. This movie already assumes that the viewer knows about the problems of the environment and also that they want to change it. There were so many solutions that were discussed in the movie, I know personally, I was inspired to look into some of these projects and hopefully other people that watched this movie were also compelled to want to help with these solutions as well.
8. What kinds of action or points of intervention are suggested by the film?
This movie suggests many different types of changes for all kinds of people. It talks about at a low level, every change that a person makes in a huge population will make a difference, and that each person’s actions can help. Also, in politics policy needs to change and we need to make our machines more efficient and run on different types of energy. One idea that was used throughout the movie was that we need to rethink everything, and use our imagination to think outside of conventional ideas of what our everyday life is like. People need to be creative and we need to basically redesign everything, from the car to city planning to how we recycle and what we use. This is an exciting point of intervention for me, as an engineering student about to go into the work force, this means that everything needs to be redesigned and built in sustainable ways, and I would really like to take part in that.
9. What could have been added to this film to enhance its environmental educational value?
I really can’t think of anything that could have been added to add more to the educational value of the movie. This movie really described each problem in a very educated and informative way with very intelligent scholars to back up the information. It skipped over the introductory information of the topics and really when right in depth for the problems and showed them on a more scientific scale rather than just statistics and giving useless figures that can’t really be understood.